performance update

Have not really talked about performance in a while.

Was up at Guntersville all this past week.  Guy camping about 100 feet from us had a really new skeeter with a 225 on it.  He came over to chat a while and asked me how fast my bass cat would run.  Told him we had just made a run up to goose pond yesterday, and my son ran it up to 74.  Didn’t stay there very long as there was quite a bit of boat traffic.  This guy responded “that’s not bad, my skeeter is running about 85.”  I was not going to get into any sort of argument / discussion with him and just let it pass.

Next afternoon we were running back to our campground (mountain lakes RV resort) with my son driving.  We were running about 60 or so.  He looked over and there goes the skeeter passing us.  He gave me “the look” and I said “sure, catch ‘I’m”.  First thing I noticed is that when he punched the classic, it REALLY took off.  He ran it up to right at 72 and stayed there as there were some quartering small waves that made it tricky.  We ran past the skeeter probably 5-8 mph faster.  Didn’t think any more about it.

We got back to camp and were fixing to cook on the grill when he drives up to park across the road.  He comes over and says “hey, I thought you said that thing usually ran maybe 74 with both of you in the boat.  how fast were you going when you caught and passed us today?”  I replied we were running 72 at the time.  He said “no way, we were running 85 and you passed us easily.”  I asked if he was using GPS speed.  He replied “what is that?  I am using the speedometer on the dash.”  I walked over to his boat and he did have some lower-level sonar unit at the console that did not have GPS.  I explained that I have run the classic up to 78 in the right conditions with cold, dry air and perfect chop.  And that when I am running that fast, my speedo is completely pegged.  That they are hopelessly inaccurate at higher speeds.  He left somewhat deflated as we estimated (between him and me) that he was really running around 65, since we were pretty similar in estimating we were running 7-8 mph faster.

Before he left, he asked me “is that really a 200, or is it a tuned motor?”  🙂  I told him “bone stock”.  Only thing that has been done to it is replace seals in lower unit (DIY), replaced plugs, and kept everything clean and tight.  BTW he had a yammer SHO  225 (obviously since it is a skeeter).  He might have been carrying 100 pounds more than me in that he and his buddy weighed around 500 according to him, where my son, dog and I weight in at about 400 pounds total.

We ran in to him the next day and he asked if we would be willing to do a mile run from a dead stop.  Told him “sure”.  We absolutely left him on takeoff, and were doing 70 right quick.  And even though we were at least a hundred yards ahead after 30 seconds or so, we continued to pull away.  That evening he simply commented “damned fast boat there…”

Which it pretty much is.  And more importantly, it took all the waves Guntersville could throw at it without a single drop of water coming in the boat, and no bloody kidneys from rough ride.  Just did what it was supposed to do.

BTW I am hardly a skeeter expert, and when I asked he said it was a ZX225 or something similar (2019 model I think).  Sure about the 225, not so sure about the ZX.  Could have been VX etc…